Thanksgiving Holiday Office Closure:

A few weeks ago, we posted a Grid <=> Ground (5:01) video showing how TPC Desktop 2016 will let you convert ground coordinates to grid coordinates when importing an ASCII file. This is a common scenario anytime you work with ground coordinates for data collection/stakeout and a TPC survey that uses a CRS (Coordinate Reference System) and its grid coordinates. In the video, we show how TPC integrates the conversion right into the import. You could do the same steps manually, after the import, but this new feature turns those more complicated steps into one very simple one.

Here is a screen shot of the Pacsoft import settings. Notice that we are converting ground coordinates to grid, just like in the video. But also notice that:
• we are adding 10000 to each imported point number so there won’t be any point label conflicts
• we are creating a separate drawing of the import, so we can see exactly what came in

Import Matching Points

And the new standardized option we think you’ll appreciate the most is When an imported point matches an existing point. This addresses the age old conundrum of what to do with imported points that use existing point labels and what to do if the coordinate or geodetic positions don’t match. TPC 2016 provides three new options that pretty much cover the bases, along with very clear notes in the Details report about what matches were found and how TPC resolved them.

So when you get your TPC Desktop 2016 this coming January, just open the settings dialog for any one of the dozens of file types TPC supports and press F1 for a complete run-down on what all the new standardized options do.

John Balcom, President, MSE, PLS, GISP

Mark Lull: News Flash: Traverse PC Produces Time Machine!

Just in case you missed this important news item, here is the syndicated story from our local paper, the Florence Tribune:

Local Company Produces Time Machine!
September 16, 2015: Florence, OR

Traverse PC, the local company that is the worldwide leader in innovation in land surveying software, released the latest in their long line of products; TPC Desktop 2015 R1. What is so exciting about this release is that not only did the company provide excellent improvements to their tool kit, they also included a working time machine!

World-renowned physicist and cosmologist Steve Falconer CH, CBE, FRS, FRSA stated, “It is stunning what Traverse PC has achieved. Physicists have long stated that time travel into the future is theoretically possible. Time travel into the past has long been believed to be impossible. Traverse PC has done the impossible. They have created and produced a time machine that allows users of their system to travel backwards in time. It is simply amazing! The physics community is stunned by this achievement which will cause us to re-evaluate everything that we once thought of as impossible.”

That’s right, we included a time machine with TPC Desktop 2015 R1 and no less than Steve Falconer* was absolutely amazed by our accomplishment!

So how does it work? It’s really quite simple. There is a new option in the TPC Desktop File menu to Recover survey backup… When you choose this option, TPC displays up to ten previous versions of the file you have open along with the date, time and file size of the different versions. You can choose any previous file version to open, see if it is the version you want or not and then either save it as the current version or not save it and check a different version.

We have had several occasions where users have called to say that they had something messed up and asking if we could help them. If they were on the TPC Connection, the answer was, “No problem! We’ll just recover one of the survey backups.” It has helped out several of our clients and they were very happy to have it. This feature will pay for itself the first time you need it and it will be available to everyone in TPC Desktop 2016.

*Apologies to Stephen Hawking for appropriating his resume’ for the news “article” above.

Mark Lull, Technical Support

Oliver Bochsler: More Google Earth Enhancements Coming in 2016

Last month, I talked about some of the enhancements to the KML and KMZ file exports that are coming in TPC Desktop 2016 in January. I didn’t tell you everything, I saved some great stuff for this month!

Click to view the image full-sizeWhen you export anything with points from TPC you’ll notice in Google Earth that you can click the point symbol and have a balloon pop-up with some basic information on that point. Those point data balloons have had some work done. They’ve been reworked to have a better layout for readability as well as providing more information.

There is a new export option for KML/KMZ; ‘Traverse line data visible’. Tagging traverse line data visible when exporting a traverse adds a placemark at the midpoint of each line in the traverse. When you click that placemark a balloon pops up that displays the tool tip text for a traverse line, curve, or spiral from the Drawing View. This is great; you can now get the same information from the Drawing View tooltips in Google Earth. You’ll also notice that there are two blue hyperlinks at the top of the balloon which are the point labels for the ends of that line, click either of them to get the data balloon for that point to pop up!

We’ve always been about the data in TPC and this is just one more example of how we make your data accessible at every step along the way.

Oliver Bochsler, Software Developer

Eric Tanikawa: Dropping Support for TPC Desktop 2013

We will be dropping support for Traverse PC Desktop 2013 with the release of TPC Desktop 2016 on January 1st.

Traverse PC has added many new features in the six releases since 2013 such as support of KML and KMZ files for Google Earth. We have also improved performance and stability of our software and taken advantage of more of the advancements in Windows 7, 8 and 10. So, with the release of TPC Desktop 2016, we will discontinue the maintenance updates and support for 2013.

If you have TPC Desktop 2013, give me a call for a great update price! The program enhancements will really pay off for you!

Life with Traverse PC

Traverse PC has provided land surveying software since 1987. We offer point-based software for managing your land survey data and Quick View™ technology for your drawings.

We're not CAD! And don't want to be! Because CAD simply can't do land surveying like Traverse PC does. It just works Better than CAD and is always CAD friendly!

You'll also find all the standards like COGO, traverse closure and adjustments, coordinate transformations, DTM, least squares, profiles and more. Plus,the necessities like GIS / DWG / DXF / DGN / PDF / Data Collector interfaces so you can get your data from anywhere and share it with anyone! Now with Geodetics and Cadastral tools with PLSS built in.